2025: A Year of Preparation and Discovery
Jesse Lyles, VP & GM, Portfolio Business Unit and Sarah LaSelva, Chief Product Marketing Manager, RF & Wireless, Emerson Test and Measurement

As we look ahead to 2025, the wireless industry is entering a pivotal year defined by research, preparation, and discovery. 2025 will be about defining what is possible in the future through collaboration, exploration, and evaluation. From early glimpses of 6G to deeper dives into artificial intelligence (AI) interoperability and efficiencies, 2025 promises to set the stage for the next era of technology.

Prediction 1: The First Glimpse of 6G Standards

The first significant moment for 6G standards will come in March when the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) holds its 6G workshop in Korea. 6G research has been ongoing for several years, and this gathering will decide what the first 6G standard will look like. We will know better how it will improve the capabilities of 5G and what new features we can expect.

The workshop will determine the features (work items and study items in 3GPP terms) that will likely be included in the first official 3GPP release for 6G, Release 20. Topics for Release 20 include AI advancements, network energy savings, satellite communications evolution, and using upper mid-band spectrum (7-24 GHz).   

Excitement in the wireless industry around 6G has been muted in 2024. 5G has been expensive to deploy, and new business cases are needed to make 6G a success. Now, with more clarity around 6G, the industry can reset its ambitions and plan smartly how it will invest in the next generation of wireless communication.

The 3GPP 6G workshop in March, followed by the first meeting for Release 20 in June, will provide the roadmap for what is next—a significant first step in defining 6G’s future capabilities and applications.

Prediction 2: AI Moves from Promise to Reality

AI dominated conversations in 2024 and has been celebrated for its transformative potential. In 2025, we will continue to see more real-world implementations of AI in wireless systems. As AI starts to be commercialized, the industry is also tasked with testing AI. Challenges still exist when it comes to gathering, labeling, and processing the massive amounts of data to train machine learning models. We have started to uncover some of the real-world challenges of AI, and these challenges are pushing the industry to question:

  • How can we as an industry work together to train algorithms on shared datasets? 
  • How do we ensure models developed by different companies can operate seamlessly together? 
  • How do we balance proprietary development with the need for interoperability?

This shift represents an exciting opportunity for the entire ICT industry, including test and measurement companies. As AI-powered products become more common, the role of testing and validating will be crucial to know how well different AI systems function independently and how they communicate and integrate with each other. The ability to evaluate interoperability will become a competitive advantage, ensuring that AI models are not just functional but also collaborative within an expanding tech ecosystem.

Prediction 3: A More Critical Look at AI

Beyond simply implementing AI, 2025 will also be a year of critical evaluation. The initial wave of AI adoption was fueled by excitement and ambition, but the industry is now uncovering some of the challenges of AI and asking tougher questions:

  • How difficult is it to gather the data necessary to train our algorithms so that our models can interoperate together?
  • Is AI truly delivering better products than what human experts could create?
  • Does it reduce energy consumption, or does its resource intensity outweigh its benefits?
  • Is it improving efficiency and reducing time-to-market—or is it introducing new layers of complexity and cost?

These questions will guide much of the research and development in AI throughout the year. Companies will need to prove that AI-powered products are not just novel but genuinely superior in terms of performance, sustainability, and return on investment. This more thoughtful, data-driven evaluation will separate the most valuable AI applications from those that were fueled primarily by hype.

We anticipate an increased emphasis on energy efficiency benchmarking, particularly as sustainability becomes a key business imperative. Energy consumption will be measured not just at the data center level but also at the product and system levels, forcing companies to consider AI’s environmental impact alongside its technological capabilities.

While some years are defined by blockbuster product launches or major innovations, we are predicting 2025 will be different. It will be a year of building foundations—of asking the right questions, conducting critical research, and preparing for what is next. The work that happens behind the scenes this year will shape the technologies of the next decade.

Whether it’s defining the first steps toward 6G, establishing the frameworks for AI interoperability, or evaluating AI’s true value through rigorous testing, the industry’s progress in 2025 will come from its willingness to collaborate, research, and challenge its assumptions. This will be a year of learning—not just about what is possible, but about how to make it real, sustainable, and scalable.

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